South Korean man gets 4-year sentence in Tokyo shrine blast

TOKYO (AP) — A South Korean man who detonated a homemade device in a public restroom at a controversial shrine in Tokyo was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison.

Jeon Chang-han had been arrested in December and charged with trespassing, property damage and violation of the explosives control law. No one was hurt in the explosion at Yasukuni Shrine on Nov. 23.

Tokyo District Court Judge Kazunori Karei said in his ruling that Jeon learned how to make gunpowder on the internet and tested detonating it repeatedly in metal pipes, Japan’s Kyodo News service reported.

Jeon is 28 years old, Japanese media reported.

Yasukuni Shrine has been criticized by South Korea and China, both of which suffered from Japan’s colonial actions during World War II, for enshrining war criminals among the 2.5 million war-dead the shrine honors.

South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuk said in Seoul that consular representatives in Japan have provided assistance to Jeon, but that it would be inappropriate for the government to comment on the case.